Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
On the lawn of The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music 1913
Cincinnati, Ohio United States
Information
Type	Conservatory
Established	1867 (1867)
Founder	Clara Baur
Closed	1955 (1955)
Affiliation	University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music

The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which is now part of the University of Cincinnati.

Noted alumni include cancer researcher Aldred Scott Warthin, singer and entertainer Tennessee Ernie Ford, trumpeter Al Hirt, jazz pianist Pat Moran McCoy, and composers Harold Morris, Conlon Nancarrow, and Margaret McClure Stitt.

History

The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was founded by Clara Baur in 1867.^[1][2] It was the first music school in Cincinnati and was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school.^[1][2] On June 10, 1924, Burnet Corwin Tuthill, general manager of the conservatory, instigated a meeting for the formation of the National Association of Schools of Music together with five other institutions: the American Conservatory of Music, the Bush Conservatory of Music, the Louisville Conservatory of Music, the Pittsburgh Musical Institute, and the Walcott Conservatory of Music.^[3]

It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which is now part of the University of Cincinnati.

Student activities

The conservatory had a chapter of Sigma Iota Chi literary sorority from 1905 to 1915.^[4]

Notable people

Alumni

• Lou Busch, record producer, musician and songwriter
• Tennessee Ernie Ford (1939), singer and television personality
• Corinne Stocker Horton, elocutionist, journalist, and newspaper editor
• Pat Moran McCoy, jazz pianist
• Harold Morris, pianist, composer, and educator
• Conlon Nancarrow, composer
• Carrie Obendorfer Simon, communal leader
• Margaret McClure Stitt, dramatist

Faculty

• James G. Heller, professor of musicology

References

1. Shotwell, John Brough (1902). A History of the Schools of Cincinnati. The School Life Company. p. 373.
2. Southern, Eileen (1997). Music of Black Americans. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 221. ISBN 0-393-03843-2.
3. Tuthill, Burnet Corwin (1963). NASM — The First Forty Years: A Personal History of the National Association of Schools of Music LC:ML27.U5 N2634. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Schools of Music. p. 1.
4. Lurding, Carroll and Becque, Fran. (July 11, 2025) "Sigma Iota Chi". Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities. Urbana: University of Illinois. Accessed October 16, 2025.